Q: How do I stop craving?

I had to sit through the physical cravings that persisted a while after I stopped drinking. Keeping super busy with AA activities distracted me, and others' encouragement helped. Once alcohol was totally out of my system, the alcoholic part of my mind would try to persuade me to drink. This is what we refer to in AA as the 'mental obsession': the persistently recurring, overwhelming delusion that a drink is a good idea. In contrast to the physical cravings, which fade, the mental obsession, if not 'treated' with the full programme of AA, tends to amplify until I yield and drink. Once I fully engaged in AA, the mental obsession stopped 'getting me' and, with progress in the programme, it, too, eventually faded.